Please join The National Day of Action to Exonerate & Free Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H.Rap Brown) on Friday September 16th, 2016 hosted by the OICC (Oakland Islamic Community Center in association with IJAN (Imam Jamil Action Network).

We will begin with Jummah Prayer at 1:30pm at Lil Bobby Hutton Park (Defremery) in West Oakland. Immediately following Jummah there will be a Rally for Imam Jamil Al-Amin at 2pm with speakers and community outreach.

The night program is from 7-9pm at the OICC (7901 Oakport st. Suite 4400 Oakland CA 94601) and will be a work meeting in which the people can get actively involved with the freedom campaign for Imam Jamil Al-Amin which is being organized by IJAN (Imam Jamil Action Network) Check out www.imamjamilactionnetwork.weebly.com for more information on IJAN.

The Imam Jamil Action Network (IJAN) is reaching out to individuals and organizations of conscience, those committed to justice and truth, to join us on Sept. 16th, 2016, for A National Day of Action and Support for Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (the former H. Rap Brown).

The National Day of Action will comprise a series of nationwide initiatives designed to educate some, and re-acquaint others, on who Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin is, where he is, how he got where he is.

We invite all who possess a passion for human rights and human dignity to join in the September 16th effort by conducting actions of their own choosing and capacity (within their own localities) for this well-known and respected political prisoner.

For the past 16 years Imam Jamil has been a political prisoner -- unjustly imprisoned, for deeply held convictions going all the way back to his days as H. Rap Brown.

It was learned through the discovery process, leading up to and during what masqueraded as a trial, that government scrutiny of Imam Jamil (via undercover informants and provocateurs) increased following his embrace of Islam – despite the laudatory work done by Imam Jamil and his community in cleaning up the West End of Atlanta (where his faith community, Al Ummah, was based). Our ultimate goal is to generate the required pressure to exonerate and free Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin insha'Allah! www.imamjamilactionnetwork.org

In a perplexing decision published today, August 31, 2016, District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani denied the request presented by Mumia's attorneys last August 2015, that the court order the PA Department of Correction (DOC) to immediately treat Mumia, who is suffering from chronic and active Hepatitis C, with the existing cure for that diseaseThe judge denied the suit on a technicality: that Mumia's health suit failed to name the DOC's Hepatitis C Committee, which according to the judge is the entity responsible for taking action in these matters. Really, Judge Mariani???

However, the judge's decision holds that the DOC has violated the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment in its failure to treat Mumia, and other prisoners, suffering with active Hepatitis C.

This is yet another example of the contortions and acrobatics that have long been employed by the courts to deny justice to Mumia, and thousands of other defendants.

Read Bob Boyle's longer summary of the judge's decision below.

More updates to follow on next steps. We will not stop until Mumia and the thousands of other prisoners with Hep C get the treatment they need.

In mid-2015 Mumia Abu Jamal filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania requesting that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (“DOC”) provide him with life-saving medication to cure his hepatitis C. Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes, et al., 15 Civ. 0967. In a decision issued today, August 31, United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani denied Mumia’s request for a preliminary injunction requested that medication while at the same time finding that the DOC’s protocol for treating inmates with hepatitis C falls below constitutional standards. Judge Mariani denied the motion on the ground that the individuals currently being sued, the Warden of SCI Mahanoy, the Director of Health Care for the DOC, the Director of Health Care at SCI Mahanoy, and various medical staff would not have the authority to carry out any injunction.

In October 2015, the DOC adopted a protocol for treating inmates with hepatitis C. Under it, only inmates with advanced, decompensated cirrhosis with bleeding are given the hepatitis C anti-virals that have a 90-95% cure rate. As Judge Mariani found:

DOC’s treatment protocol as currently adopted and implemented fails to provide treatment for hepatitis C through the administration of DAA [Direct-Acting Anti-Viral] medications such as Harvoni, Sovaldi and Viekira Pak until an inmate, including Plaintiff, has progressed to the stage of advanced compensated cirrhosis or early decompensated cirrhosis manifested by esophageal varices. As such, the interim Hepatitis C protocol presents a conscious disregard of a known risk of advanced cirrhosis and death by esophageal hemorrhages.

…The protocol as currently adopted and implemented presents deliberate indifference to the known risks which follow from untreated hepatitis C.

…the interim protocol prolongs the suffering of those who have been diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis C and allows the progression of the disease to accelerate so that it presents a greater threat of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death of the inmate with such disease.

(Excerpted from Opinion).

In denying the injunction, Judge Mariani found that the members of the DOC’s Hepatitis C committee – an entity whose existence was unknown until near the end of the December 2015 evidentiary hearing – would be the proper defendants. It should be noted that currently pending before the Court is a motion to add as a defendant DOC Director of Clinical Services Paul Noel, who is a member of the Hepatitis C committee, as a defendant. In addition, at no time during the litigation has the DOC argued that the defendants who had been named could not carry out an injunction.

While we are disappointed that Judge Mariani did not issue an injunction, it is important that the court recognized, and found, that the Pennsylvania DOC is denying individuals for whom they are responsible adequate health care as guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Irrespective of the injunction, the Pennsylvania DOC can choose to comply with the Constitution and provide life-saving drugs to Mumia Abu-Jamal and to all who suffer from hepatitis C.